IRIS flight times?

Since it is imperative when planning auto missions to know your flight times I have been testing with stabilize/loiter hovers and measuring air time while I familiarize myself with the Arducopter platform.

I now have 17 full flights with respect to battery failsafe at 10.5 volts. I bought 3 batteries with the IRIS.

On these batteries the best hover time I can get is 10.5 to 11 minutes.

Yesterday I bought a more expensive Thunder Power RC G6 Pro Performance 3850mah 45C battery and a HI-Tech X1 MF balance charger. On the first flight with that battery I got 13 minutes hover/loiter. I hope to try it again today. Maybe it will get better after a couple of cycles. I only charged it with 1.9 amps for the first charge.

BTW - The $74 I spent on the charger was worth it. It charges the IRIS 3500 packs in an hour at 2 amps(well below 1C). The stock charger was taking 2.5 hours. it also displays the individual cell voltages and has a storage charge feature.

All battery tests were done with no payload. No legs, no camera, just like it comes out of the box.

I am curious to know what others are getting. The IRIS was advertised 10 to 15 minutes flight time. Assuming that it means 15 minutes with no payload and 10 minutes with legs and gimbal I would obviously like to be at 15 minutes with no payload. Doesn't seem possible as delivered.

Thanx,

I posted this else ware, but felt it should also be here as I do have the Gimbal and ran a number of tests. When I bought my Iris I figured I could do a number of things because of the UAV abilities. but what can you do in 5 or 6 minutes? In order to do more I need to remove the Legs, Gimbal and Gopro. Now I am back to what my Phantom 1 can do minus us the UAV flights.

Let me say I think everyone at 3dRobotics has been wonderful, my only letdown is this flight time. I would have been happy to pay $100 more if they could have Truly developed it to fly as advertised. My 5 1/2 minute flight was done in calm air, temp 65. I flew at a snails pace at around 100ft. I may have been able to stretch the time to just over 6 but I can tell you I would not make 7

I think to save face and show past customers and future customers they truly care, they should find a distributor that has or can manufacture a battery that will give the extra minutes. Even if they don't want to give them away for free, a reduced price for each battery the customer has already purchased would show they care.

Then again I was always a common sense person and I find that many people don't see my logic, but I know if they did this the word would spread and the business they get would far exceed the investment. Because the wrong word can spread like here and you will loose many many potential customers. I spent $1200 for my iris and gimbal, telemetry and an extra battery. I may have been better off forgetting the UAV and gone with the Phantom Vision. At least it would be useable for FPV and Good Video with wonderful flight times!

I guess we will see what happens and if anyone really cares!

Replies

- Michael > Jordan Brown April 9, 2014 at 3:15pm
  
  That is very good time, do you have any logs from the SD I would like to compare them to mine. the stock batteries are not reporting good as everyone knows. I am being sent a battery to test sometime this week so maybe we will find something that will help. But if I could get 17 minutes flying around that would make me happy. Not sure what it would be with my Gimbal and Legs?
- Jordan Brown > Michael April 9, 2014 at 3:25pm
  
  heres a screenshot of the voltage and total current of the first full flight of the pack. this run was before i calibrated the voltage readings, they were .1-.2 low, now they are more accurate.
- SCott > Jordan Brown April 9, 2014 at 2:54pm
  
  17 minutes nice! Can these be charged with the stock charger?
- Jordan Brown > SCott April 9, 2014 at 3:23pm
  
  Yes but it would take a few hours, I never even took the stock charger out of the box but I've heard the output is rather weak.
- SCott > Jordan Brown April 9, 2014 at 4:00pm
  
  Thanks. And sorry for the novice question but what kind of charger is adequate? Can anyone recommend one?
- Jordan Brown > SCott April 9, 2014 at 4:24pm
  
  As long as your willing to learn, there are no stupid questions.
  
  There's plenty of decent chargers out there, a decent rule of thumb is to get one that's capable of charging your biggest battery at 1c, so for a 5000mah battery, you want something that's capable of 5a, you also have to be mindful of power input requirements, quite a few are DC only and will require a power supply to charge at your house.
  
  I have a thunder ac6, nothing too special but it gets the job done, and accepts ac/DC input for at home and out in the field.
- Murat > Jordan Brown April 9, 2014 at 10:40am
  
  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=...
mP1 April 7, 2014 at 3:56pm

Why is everyone here using 3S and not 4S batteries ? You will need a separate small 3S to power your video transmitter and camera but it also gives you 33% more power.
- Mark Prince > mP1 April 7, 2014 at 3:58pm
  
  I haven't found one that fits yet at 4500mah to 5000mah.
Michael April 7, 2014 at 7:42am

I posted this else ware, but felt it should also be here as I do have the Gimbal and ran a number of tests.    When I bought my Iris I figured I could do a number of things because of the UAV abilities. but what can you do in 5 or 6 minutes?   In order to do more I need to remove the Legs, Gimbal and Gopro.   Now I am back to what my Phantom 1 can do minus us the UAV flights.

Let me say I think everyone at 3dRobotics has been wonderful, my only letdown is this flight time. I would have been happy to pay $100 more if they could have Truly developed it to fly as advertised. My 5 1/2 minute flight was done in calm air, temp 65. I flew at a snails pace at around 100ft. I may have been able to stretch the time to just over 6 but I can tell you I would not make 7

I think to save face and show past customers and future customers they truly care, they should find a distributor that has or can manufacture a battery that will give the extra minutes. Even if they don't want to give them away for free, a reduced price for each battery the customer has already purchased would show they care.

Then again I was always a common sense person and I find that many people don't see my logic,   but I know if they did this the word would spread and the business they get would far exceed the investment.   Because the wrong word can spread like here and you will loose many many potential customers.   I spent $1200 for my iris and gimbal, telemetry and an extra battery.   I may have been better off forgetting the UAV and gone with the Phantom Vision. At least it would be useable for FPV and Good Video with wonderful flight times!

                                                 I guess we will see what happens and if anyone really cares!

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